Mountain Childers
by keptin-holmes
Summary: "I met John Burrough, who walked the land wi' a mountain childer on either hand. They were lean an' long an' big in the eyes an' terrible hungry for their size." When one of Bobby's old contacts goes missing, the boys are sent to investigate. It's a small and boring town, sure, but some people are blaming the "mountain childers" for Dan Creed's disappearance. Castiel is not amused.


For juicyfer and precious-souls.

This is closely inspired by one of the stories [same title] found in Double-Dare to Be Scared by Robert D. San Souci. I'm going to change a few things up and make it an actual case for the brothers to solve, but right now it's five in the morning and this hasn't been beta'd. Also why it probably sucks.

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this chapter, or Supernatural/Souci's book at all. This is basically just for shits and grins.

So far it's gonna be rated T because I'm not planning on either brother doing the horizontal tango, but because I curse like a sailor it might be bumped up? Not sure yet. That, and there will be violence/possible gore in later chapters. And mentions of past child abuse. I don't even know anymore. And yeah, Castiel will be here and this is basically set during some generic point after 5.06 _"I Believe the Children Are Our Future."_

* * *

The dry ground crunches beneath the trio's feet as they make their way down the old dirt road; the footsteps beneath the two children's bare feet was audibly softer than the sharper crunching from beneath the old boots worm by the man walking between the two. He mumbles something, a litany of words that roll off his tongue as if he were reciting a song - and perhaps he was. The two children are skinny, seemingly drowning in their overalls, and they're almost comically dwarfed by the older man. Yet he himself stands at an average height, with an average build and dark brown hair upon his head. There's nothing particularly unique about him; he's a farmer from the town over the hills, married to his high school sweetheart and the father of four children.

But this man is, or will become, a very important person. He will not return to his small house tonight, nor will he drive his dusty blue pickup into town tomorrow morning. In fact, he'll never be seen again. His body will never be found, and his family and friends and the rest of the townfolk will hold a memorial service two weeks from now. But these details don't matter at the moment, as the man is walking side-by-side with the two children. Even as the trio tops the hill, he continues mumbling to himself, or to the children.

Nothing out of the ordinary happens as the three disappear behind the hills and into the woods. There's no flash of light, no blood-curdling screams. There's only the loud sound of the chirping crickets, a stray dog barking at the stars, and the faint buzzing from the porch lights as they're ambushed by the insects of the night.

_An' poor Dan Creed was nevermore seen,_  
_Wi' the mountain childers an' him between._

* * *

The motel room was silent aside from the light snores of the two occupants. Two small beds seemed even smaller with the brothers stretched out upon them, both men keen on taking up as much space as possible in their slumber. Suddenly, the mobile phone placed on the first night stand began to vibrate, the buzzing made even louder by the wood beneath.

"Dean."

The phone continued to buzz.

_"Dean."_

A muffled curse could be heard from the other bed as the man burrowed his face even deeper into the pillow.

"Dean, answer your damn phone before I throw it out the window."

This statement was punctuated by a thump as Sam's pillow smacked the back of his brother's head. The younger Winchester would rather lose one of the cheap motel pillows as ammunition than be the one to answer the phone so early in the morning.

"Dammit Sammy, _you_ get the friggin' phone," said the eldest brother, even as he blindly launched the pillow over his shoulder in the other man's general direction. He then reached out, snatching the phone before it skittered off the bedside table. Without opening his eyes, he flipped open the phone and groggily answered the call. "The sun ain't even up, so wha'the hell d'ya want?"

Sam smirked at his brother's words, mumbling a short, "You're an ass," before rolling over on his side to face the other bed.

_"Mornin' to you too, sunshine."_

"Whaddya want, Bobby? Not that I don't like hearin' from you, but it's too friggin' early for social calls." Dean replied, rolling over onto his back to glare up at the ceiling in place of actually glaring at the man on the other end of the line.

_"Well that's 'cos this ain't no social call, boy."_

Dean made a short, non-commital sound. "Everythin' alright?" His question was followed by the sound of old bedsprings creaking as Sam shifted across the room.

_"I'm fine, but I can't say the same for Dan Creed."_

"For who?" Dean's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he tried to remember if he'd ever met this man before.

_"Dan Creed. You probably never heard of him, but he was a contact of mine, long time ago. He didn't hunt himself, but he knew some of us who did and would always help us if we passed through his town."_

Dean nodded, not caring if Bobby couldn't see it. "So he's got a case or somethin'?"

_"Or somethin'. He **is** the case this time. According to his wife, Dan up and vanished 'bout a week ago and no one's heard from him since. It's a small town too, surrounded by a whole bunch of nothin'. Nothin' 'cept for the woods, and the police have already checked every inch of the place and came back empty-handed."_

"So are we looking for a Wendigo? Or do you think it's something else?" Sam rolled his eyes at that.

_"I don't think so. This one might be a bit different, though I ain't real sure. Maggie, his wife, said her kids are dead set on blaming some backwoods legend 'bout mountain children leading their father away. She don't believe a word of it, and neither will the police, but something ain't quite right about this and I figured you boys would be up for the job. Unless you're on some other case now."_

"Yeah no, we'll check it out, Bobby. 'S not like we're in the middle of anything, other than sleep I mean."

_"You're a real hoot in the morning, you know? But thanks. Call me when you boys are up and ready to go, and I'll give you the address."_

"Yes sir."

_"Now that don't mean take your sweet-ass time! Tell your brother I said hello and that I ain't sorry he's stuck with you."_ Dean chuckled, hearing the smile in the other man's voice.

"C'mon, I was wide awake when you called. Giagantor's still dead asleep -" he broke off in a bark of laughter as his brother interrupted with a loud greeting and a pointed bitchface in Dean's direction. "Okay okay, yeah we'll call you back but we're gonna let the sun rise first."

Bobby said his goodbye, which was really just an amused grunt in reply, and Dean snapped the phone shut.

"One of Bobby's old contacts went missing and he wants us to check it out," he informed his younger brother, eyes slipping shut already.

"Does he have any idea what might have happened?"

"Nope, said the police checked everywhere and didn't find a thing. I figure we can stop by and look around, avoid the hillbilly children from the hills -"

"The _what?_" Sam asked, slightly incredulous. He didn't bother pointing out the repetitive 'hillbilly children from the hills' because he knew it wouldn't phase his brother.

"Beats me. Apparently the guy's kids are blamin' some creepy kids for their dad's disappearance, but Bobby didn't say if he believed it."

"Great. Another children's story," the younger man muttered in reply. Haven't they dealt with enough children lately?

"Yeah but my money's on this _not_ being the Antichrist," Dean quipped, rolling on his side, back towards his brother.

"Yeah," Sam chuckled, "I'm guessing this isn't Jesse's fault."

"Shut up, Sammy."

"Right. Go back to sleep, princess." He smiled to himself at his brother's grunt in reply, letting his own eyes slide shut as both men attempted to steal another hour or so of sleep before packing up and leaving this small town in the rearview mirror.

* * *

**Notes: **Uh so yeah I don't know what I'm doing and this is lame but hopefully it'll get better. c:


End file.
